Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Since my undergrad I have been working around the U.S. working with a variety of species: fish, plankton, horseshoe crabs, manatees, crabs, and sea turtles. While traveling I tried my hand at outdoor education and realized that I enjoyed it very much. I then worked with a number of great education programs throughout the U.S. until I ended up here.. My project focuses on looking at commercial harvest impacts on white suckers. The state of Maine issues an unlimited number of commercial permits to harvest white suckers in Maine's inland waters for lobster bait. There are concerns that overfishing and/or incidental catch of other fish species may occur, and that's where my project comes in. My efforts will be focused on collecting biological data from white suckers caught in lakes open to commercial harvesting versus suckers caught in lakes closed to commercial harvest.